Tom McCollum

Tom McCollum is a business strategist and highly regarded auto industry innovator and CEO. Tom is the Co-Founder/President/CEO of SCORESTRONG™, a new First Impression Resource™ for highly qualified consumers. As a former CEO in the retail auto industry, Tom McCollum has been involved in specialty retail and the consumer credit space for over 30 years.
Tom McCollum catalyzes businesses poised for growth, companies requiring swift turnarounds or organizational change or start-ups in need of proven and innovative leadership.
Tom McCollum is also known for isolating top priorities within chaotic environments and rapidly creating and executing a strategic plan for transforming a company’s results.
Tom McCollum will help you jumpstart momentum, boost morale, grow revenue and profitability, capture market share and build a path to a sustainable future.

We all have an old but favorite pair of sweat pants and a not-for-public tattered shirt we lounge around the house in, right? Particularly when we know that no one is around and the likelihood of being face-to-face with anyone other than an immediate family member is a minimal risk. You have that look don’t you? No shower, maybe a little pillow-hair and looking pretty scary versus your normal “together” self. You’d never leave the house in that condition, would you?

In terms of image, there’s one thing we all have in common: When we have an important social event, a business meeting or client interaction we put our best foot forward in terms of appearance. And on those really special occasions we might even get a fresh haircut and purchase something new to wear, all in an effort to make a quality impression. We hedge our chances of success by carefully controlling the image that we portray to others. While we might all have different looks for different occasions, one thing’s for certain, if we know someone important is looking at or evaluating us we go out of our way to be on our best behavior and make certain we look our best. We naturally want to impress as it seems to be both common sense as well as an intelligent act of self-promotion.

So, what about your online persona––your so-called digital footprint? The ubiquitious presence you now have with all of your online profiles, activities and interactions? And those profiles are visible 24/7 to anyone in the world galaxy that decides to look. And yet many choose to have a crappy photo or no photograph at all, complete with sketchy background information including grammar that could use some serious wordsmithing. You’re on display to the world around-the-clock and you’re presenting yourself in the equivalent of that old pair of sweats and tattered shirt. Really? We can probably all agree that an incomplete and poorly worded profile won’t provoke much confidence with an opportunity giver looking at your profile. People with these types of profiles should rein in their expectations as there’s very little chance of an offer––of any kind.

Search engine functionality has improved to the point that anything and everyone can be found. If your profile is constructed properly, positioned strategically and coordinated with the proper keywords and phrases, you will be found so, you might want to be looking the digital equivalent of professionally-polished. Passive recruiting has always been popular among search firms but the transparency caused by today’s search functionality has given worldwide access to anyone interested in performing a search. That includes the larger search firms all the way down to the one person HR department. It could even be a start-up looking for advisors or a board looking for expertise. Someone, somewhere is attempting to match people with opportunities. Are you discoverable? Moreover, are you presentable? Meaningful people with meaningful opportunities are looking for people just like you. That means you might want to be the most presentable virtual version of yourself when they do look your way…

Take a digital shower, comb your online hair and put on your best virtual outfit.

Contrary to what we would all like to believe, even people that know us don’t think about us nearly as often as we might think! Ask yourself this question: Other than those in your immediate sphere-of-influence does anyone really know who you are and what you’re capable of? Probably not. However, when it comes to personal visibility it’s not really about those that know you well enough that they might be prone to think about you. It’s about those that don’t know you at all or all that well. It’s this group that you must learn to nurture and develop. It’s this group that can produce unexpected but extraordinary opportunities. Opportunities that you’re likely missing out on and you don’t even know it. The funny thing is, the opportunity givers don’t know they’re missing you anymore than you know what you’re missing. Let’s bridge that gap, huh?

You’ll get around to it, you say? You’ll start soon? You’ve been meaning to do it? A personal visibility campaign can be just like diets and exercise––you’ll start tomorrow, right? Yes, it is a lot of work. And no, it won’t be as bad as you think in terms of getting started. It never is. And just like every diet and every exercise program, you’ll be glad you did and the end result will likely be worth it.

You’re on an inexorable path to a more and more comprehensive relationship with technology and it’s not so much a matter of IF you’ll adapt or not. It’s really a matter of how far behind you’ll be before you finally choose to get started. It can either be a proactive decision to get engaged now or you can wait until the decision gets made for you. The latter being the drag-along option.

Before you know it, your profile and social resume will be complete and properly displayed on a number of connectivity platforms. With these platforms working together your visibility will be significantly enhanced, your name will rank high with the various search engines and if you play your cards just right, your name might show up on the first page when someone googles your profession or principal skill set. That would be the pinnacle of personal visibility! The visibility platforms at your disposal like LinkedIn, AboutMe and Brand Yourself are significant and very effective at telling your story in a compelling and meaningful way. Establish a presence on all, perfect your social and professional resume content and optimize your visibility… the sooner the better.

Be assured of one very compelling fact: There are important people out there looking for the right person to match with current opportunities. Make sure they have the best odds and opportunity to find you––you’ll both be better for it.

Is your online persona an authentic representation of you? Have you taken any liberties in the description of your attributes, characteristics, skills or experiences? Is there any fudge whatsoever in a past title or scholastic achievement? Would someone recognize you from your current profile picture? In today’s digital environment, any and all representations are likely part of your permanent online record––whether you want it to be or not.

Person-to-person relationships are one thing in terms of familiarity, however, with the expansion of virtual networks across a myriad of social and professional networking sites and no validation of any kind taking place by the very platforms where our personal information is being posted, a real temptation exists for some to exaggerate and misrepresent their qualifications and backgrounds. Whether it’s an online profile or a professional resume, we are all playing by the so-called honor system. However, as tempting as a little “spin” might be, one should understand that there’s an increasing likelihood that a digital prevarication will be discovered––it’s probably just a matter of time and the consequences could be costly.

“Everybody has the capacity to be dishonest, and almost everybody cheats”—but “just by a little.” That’s according to the behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves. In addition, a professor from Cornell, Jeff Hancock, has done substantial research on the dynamics of dishonesty and concluded that at least one in 10 text messages involves a lie of some sort. In a recent survey done by Consumer Reports, one in four people admitted to falsifying information on Facebook. According to another study of online daters, over 80 percent exaggerated attributes on their personal profiles. Hancock says, “When people are spatially distant from the people we’re interacting with, they have an easier time lying.” Put differently, that might suggest that utilities like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, among others, are great “truth-stretching” platforms. And, if you’ve spent any time on these sites, you’ve likely experienced it firsthand with someone you know well enough to know that a misrepresentation is being made.

Many of us were taught early in our professional lives that anything we put in writing is discoverable and that was true even prior to email, Facebook and Twitter. Today, all communications leave a trail, particularly in this digital age where cloud storage, screen shots, cell phones, email chains, digital archives or a multitude of other storage and capture methods are recording the details of everything we do online––can you say Big Brother?

Based on both the efficiency and increasing personal preference for online interactions, more and more encounters are taking place digitally and that means it’s more important than ever that personal representations are not only accurate, but hold up to a closer-than-cursory look, particularly with the convenience and anonymity of 24/7 access to your various social media sites by anyone choosing to look. You have a burgeoning permanent record and you should make certain it’s accurate––there’s no going back.